


Of a Kind

by doop_doop



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Gen, POV Third Person, Post-Time Skip, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21516643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doop_doop/pseuds/doop_doop
Summary: They return to the monastery on the same day, and talk.
Relationships: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester & Dedue Molinaro
Comments: 6
Kudos: 44
Collections: FE3H Rarepair Port's All Pairings Challenge





	Of a Kind

**Author's Note:**

> I realized that Dedue and Lorenz (if you recruited him) rejoin the Blue Lions during the same battle, and this was born. 
> 
> Also you can thank twitter user @michelledixart for getting this pairing into my head (even if this isn't really romantic)

“We are of a kind,” Lorenz said. “I don’t feel so out of place now, knowing you’ve joined back up with the others at the same time as I.” 

“There is no reason for either of us to feel that way,” Dedue said. But there was a hesitation in his words. Five years - these particular five years - was a very long time. Whether or not there was a logical reason, the truth was that he  _ did _ feel out of place, the same as Lorenz.

“Everything is just so… different,” Lorenz said. “Or… almost everything.”

Dedue nodded, knowing what he meant. The sameness of some things - the Professor’s appearance, certain parts of the monastery itself - only reinforced how very much had changed. It felt almost mocking, to have some things so close to how they were in his memory and others so different.

They were both in the infirmary, Manuela having just left. Lorenz’s wounds from that day’s battle had been worse than Dedue’s, and he grimaced as he eased himself off the cot he’d been lying on. “I wonder how my old room is faring,” he said. “It’s quite nostalgic, being here. I must admit, I didn’t think I’d ever return.”

Dedue nodded and, seeing Lorenz looked rather weak on his feet, offered an arm.

“I’m not quite  _ that  _ incapacitated,” Lorenz said, waving it away. “Anyways, Dedue, have you been back to your own quarters yet? Seen if your space is still in one piece?”

Dedue shook his head. After the battle, he’d followed Dimitri to the cathedral. He’d been chased out after some time by Mercedes, who ordered him to get his injuries treated. Dedue’s first impulse now was to go to the cathedral once more, but Lorenz seemed a bit too unsteady to be left alone just yet. “I will accompany you to yours, then I will see my own.” 

“That is very gentlemanly of you.” Lorenz was smiling, but Dedue didn’t know if the words were sincere or meant to mock. “I do wonder if my room will even be livable. I’m hoping it will simply be covered in dust, and nothing worse.” 

When they got there, Lorenz paused with his hand atop the knob. He turned to Dedue, smiling a little wistfully. “It’s silly, isn’t it? I’m actually  _ nervous.” _

“It isn’t silly,” Dedue said. “But remember, even if it is destroyed or unlivable, there will be a place for you to stay.” 

“Thank you,” Lorenz said. “That does help.” He took a deep breath and braced himself, then pulled the door open.

The room was bare but clean: the bed was made, the rug laid neatly out on the floor, the desk empty but intact. Lorenz ran his fingers lightly over the top of it, then raised his eyebrows. “Hardly any dust.”

“Someone’s been cleaning, I guess,” Dedue said. 

“But why  _ my _ room?” Lorenz said. Stripped of his armor, he was skinnier than Dedue remembered - broad-shouldered but thin-waisted. Together, they should have filled up the room, but somehow they did not. “Why did they clean  _ mine, _ when I was not there?”

“Perhaps they were hoping you would return.”

Lorenz sat down on the bed and folded his arms folded across his chest, almost as if he were giving himself a hug. “Dedue,” he said, “did you think you would reunite with everyone today?” 

“I was hoping so. I didn’t know with certainty if it would happen today until I saw the battle in the distance.”

“But you knew you’d see them again, or at least you hoped you would.”

Dedue nodded.

“I didn’t know,” Lorenz said. “I didn’t even hope. And when I saw the army making their way across that bridge, I thought: I am going to die, and it is going to be my own friends that kill me.” He made a strained noise, and Dedue realized he was crying, or trying not to cry, his face all crumpled up and flushed. “For a second I just thought, ‘It is so nice to see everyone again - I’m glad they’re well,’ and then it hit me, that they wanted me dead, that I was standing in their way. Is it not strange to you,” he went on, turning his face up to look into Dedue’s eyes directly, “that not half a day ago you would have killed me where I stood, and now we sit here together, friends?” 

“It is because you changed sides,” Dedue said simply. “Had you continued to stand against us, you would have been killed. And you did not drop your weapon and join us when you saw us. You could have joined our side immediately, you know.” Lorenz was lucky for the professor’s mercy, Dedue thought. Had it been Dedue alone, he would have killed Lorenz before he had time to switch sides, as he did with the others who stood in Dimitri’s path.

“Yes,” Lorenz said. Then he sighed deeply - theatrically, Dedue would have said, except he was crying freely now, his cheeks wet with tears. It may have seemed melodramatic, but Dedue did not doubt it was deeply felt.

“Dedue,” Lorenz said, “war is awful.”

Dedue said nothing. He knew the truth of Lorenz’s statement so deeply that it was just common sense to him, like  _ water is wet  _ or  _ the sky is blue. _ He’d known it firsthand for years now. That war was awful certainly went without saying.

But Lorenz was crying with the force of it, crying and pressing one hand to the not-quite-healed wound in his side, and Dedue thought:  _ This may be the first time he’s ever truly realized it. _ And with that realization came anger - that Lorenz had lived such a charmed life until now that war was a distant, vague thing, so far removed that to say it was awful  _ did not even ring true, _ because he did not understand the horror of it. Even fighting to defend the monastery five years ago had not been so bad for Lorenz, then - maybe because he was fighting at his classmates’ side. But to see them coming towards him, weapons drawn, not happy to see him but just there to strike him down… 

It made Dedue feel pity, too, side by side with the anger. It did not matter, really, that this fact of life had become truth to Dedue himself far earlier; it would not make Lorenz’s pain sting any less to learn it as an adult, rather than as a child. So Dedue sat down on the bed next to Lorenz, hoping his presence would calm him and not exacerbate his tears. 

“War is awful,” Dedue said. “But we fight to end it.” 

“Fighting to end fighting,” Lorenz said. “That seems a little paradoxical, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know.” 

“Where did you plan to go tonight?” Lorenz asked suddenly, wiping his eyes. “To Dimitri’s side?”

Dedue nodded. “That’s right.”

“They say that he says hardly anything outside of battle, that he has nothing but revenge on his mind. That he spends his days and nights in the cathedral, talking to himself, and to ghosts.”

_ Who told you that? _ Dedue almost asked, but after a moment he realized it didn’t matter. It could have been any of the others, really - Felix in his typical cruel manner, Mercedes or Annette or Manuela as a warning, Gilbert as a briefing, Sylvain in casual conversation. It was true, so it did not matter who had said it. They all knew its trueness better than Dedue himself. 

“I wonder if he will notice you are with him,” Lorenz said. 

“He did not seem to notice earlier.”

Lorenz made a noise, a surprised  _ tsk, _ like he was disappointed in Dimitri. “He thought for five years you were dead, and he hardly spares you a single glance.” 

“It doesn’t matter if he notices me or not,” Dedue said, getting to his feet. “That is not why I am going there.”

“You should stay for a little longer.” There was desperation in Lorenz’s voice, as if he knew he was fighting a losing battle even as he spoke. “Stay here. Dedue, I am… comforted by your presence.”

Dedue stood there for a long moment, looking wordlessly down at Lorenz. It was true what he’d told Lorenz - it really wasn’t about Dimitri noticing him. He’d buried the hope of an emotional reunion far inside his heart; the disappointment he’d felt at Dimitri’s condition was nothing compared to the concern, and the relief at finding him in one piece. 

But it was no small temptation, the way Lorenz was looking at him - his face raw and hopeful, still red from tears even as he did his best to smile winningly at Dedue.  _ He does want me here, _ Dedue thought, and felt warm at the idea. 

But this was not the time. He shook his head, stepping towards the door. “Another day, perhaps,” he said. “I have already been too long away.”

Yet Dedue found himself lingering in the doorway, an uncharacteristic heaviness in his feet. Then he made the mistake of glancing over his shoulder. Lorenz’s smile was long gone; his face was now so blatantly disappointed and  _ sad _ that Dedue didn’t dare to linger any longer.

_ We are of a kind, _ Lorenz had said - and, as he walked away, Dedue realized it might be true.

**Author's Note:**

> [\- my twitter](https://twitter.com/doop_doop2)  
> [\- also, I mod a fe3h rarepair server](https://discord.gg/SPeGQcm) (come say hi!)


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